search engine

American  

[surch en-juhn] / ˈsɜrtʃ ˌɛn dʒən /

noun

Digital Technology.

search engines plural

1. a computer program that searches documents, especially on the World Wide Web, for a specified word or words and provides a list of documents in which they are found.

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search engine British  

noun

1. computing a service provided on the internet enabling users to search for items of interest

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search engine Cultural  

1. Web sites or software that search the Internet for documents that contain a key word, phrase, or subject that is specified by the user to the search engine. Each engine has its own method of searching for information.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• search engines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of search engine

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

Geoff Saab was at a dental appointment when a client was chatting with the receptionist about search engine stocks.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 15, 2026

A June 2025 MIT paper mentioned by Fernandez studied a group of students writing the same essay, with one using an LLM, one using a search engine, and one using just their brain.

From Salon • Jun. 10, 2026

Other Chinese firms on the list include search engine platform Baidu, electric car marker Nio and aircraft manufacturer Comac.

From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026

Google and Apple are already closely tied, with Google paying out tens of billions of dollars every year to be the default search engine on the iPhone's Safari web browser.

From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026

I open up a search engine and point to a classified URL.

From "Legend" by Marie Lu